Many components in a jet engine are designed and manufactured to withstand relatively high temperatures. Included among these components are the turbine blades, vanes, and nozzles that make up the turbine engine section of the jet engine. In many instances, various types welding processes are used during the manufacture of the components, and to repair the components following a period of usage. Moreover, various types of welding technologies and techniques may be used to implement these various welding processes. However, one particular type of welding technology that has found increased usage in recent years is laser welding technology.
Laser welding technology uses a high power laser to manufacture parts, components, subassemblies, and assemblies, and to repair or dimensionally restore worn or damaged parts, components, subassemblies, and assemblies. In general, when a laser welding process is employed, laser light of sufficient intensity to form a melt pool is directed onto the surface of a metal work piece, while a filler material, such as powder, wire, or rod, is introduced into the melt pool. Until recently, such laser welding processes have been implemented using laser welding machines. These machines are relatively large, and are configured to run along one or more preprogrammed paths.
Although programmable laser welding machines, such as that described above, are generally reliable, these machines do suffer certain drawbacks. For example, a user may not be able to manipulate the laser light or work piece, as may be needed, during the welding process. This can be problematic for weld processes that involve the repair or manufacture of parts having extensive curvature and/or irregular or random distributed defect areas. Thus, in order to repair or manufacture parts of this type, the Assignee of the present application developed a portable, hand-held laser welding wand. Among other things, this hand-held laser welding wand allows independent and manual manipulation of the laser light, the filler material, and/or the work piece during the welding process. An exemplary embodiment of the hand-held laser welding wand is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,593,540, which is entitled “Hand Held Powder-Fed Laser Fusion Welding Torch,” and the entirety of which is hereby incorporated by reference.
The hand-held laser welding wand, such as the one described above, provides the capability to perform manual 3-D adaptive laser welding on workpieces of differing types, materials, and configurations. Hence, filler media of various types and forms is supplied to the weld area on a workpiece. In addition, many laser welding processes are conducted in the presence of an inert shield gas. Thus, gas may need to be supplied to the hand-held laser welding wand during some welding processes. Moreover, during operation of the hand-held laser welding wand, the wand may heat up. Thus, a way of cooling the wand may be needed. With conventional laser welding devices, external supplies of gas, coolant, and filler media are coupled to the devices via external conduits, tubing, and/or wiring. Such external systems and supply devices can make the use of the hand-held laser welding wand cumbersome, these systems and supply devices can impair an operator, and/or can interfere with the wand operations.
Hence, there is a need for a system of method of supplying filler media to a workpiece, and/or the provision of supplying the various types and forms of filler media via various types of delivery systems and methods, and/or a method of supplying gas and/or coolant to the hand-held laser welding wand that is not cumbersome, and/or does not impair wand operability, and/or does not interfere with wand operations. The present invention addresses one or more of these needs.